


No Chances

by PompousPickle



Category: Borderlands
Genre: F/M, Fall of New Haven, Literally everything is depressing, Mentions of miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 10:58:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1385098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PompousPickle/pseuds/PompousPickle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a lot of fallout from the battle of New Haven. This is just the immediate effect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Chances

The daylight was beating down on Roland’s eyelids.

_“Hey Killer,” she said to him with a smile on her lips and a gun in her hand. “Got something to tell ya when this is all over.” Her tone was so casual, but her shaking hands gave her away. Hyperion had never come after them this hard. Hell, Hyperion had barely bothered with them at all._

_And now, as the troops were storming New Haven, Roland couldn’t figure out why._

It was cold out. Freezing. And the white sheets they used for the tents weren’t helping block out the sun or generate any heat. Roland had certainly been in worse conditions. He had been wounded in worse conditions, even. But still, he felt like a train had mauled over his insides.

_“They’re after the Vault Key!” Roland realized as soon as that Thing showed up. That giant cyborg, Wilhelm. And damn it they were_ winning _before Wilhelm showed up. But then Roland realized that they were after Tannis, they were after that Key._

_“Lilith I need you to stay back here and fight them off. I have to get to the Key,”  Roland said as he packed up the Scorpio and began to move out. He barely even looked at her. He knew if he did, she would only make him stay, silently tell him that she needed more firepower at the gates. She would never say it out loud; she was too proud. But he knew her eyes would say it all. So he ignored her. And he left._

 “That makes over thirty dead or missing. Tannis is gone. Brick’s been taken,” Mordecai grunted from the outside of the tent, talking to someone else, probably one of the Lancemen Roland recruited. Before…well before everything went bad. “God _damn_ it! How did we let this happen?”

“I messed up,” a familiar voice replied, from inside the tent. Roland could barely move his head without hearing ringing in his ears, without every muscle in his body attempting to resist movement. “I wasn’t fighting at full strength,” Lilith laughed a little, coughing while she did so. “We’ll get ‘em next time Mordy.”

Her bed sheets were soaked in blood.

Before Roland knew what was happening, Mordecai was in the tent. “There might not _be_ a next time, Lil. Don’t you get it? New Haven is _gone_. Fyrestone is likely next. If we don’t find somewhere to-”

“Sanctuary,” Roland breathed out, surprised to hear his own voice. It sounded so rough, barely a whisper. He could hardly muster up the strength to use his lungs. He almost bought it back there. And finally, that was fully sinking in.

He glanced over at the bed sheets, soaked in dried blood. Tons of blood. Too much blood for just one person. Lilith must have almost bought it too. And god knows what the others all went through. God knows if Tannis and Brick and the others were even still alive. But Lilith, clothes torn to pieces and skin ripped and bandages all over her arms and legs and stomach…

_“Got something to tell ya when this is all over.”_

Roland shook his head of the thought. This _wasn’t_ over. Not by a long shot. “We can get to Sanctuary,” he rasped out, trying to sit up just a little. “We can recover our forces, recruit more of the Lance. I’m sure plenty of them would rather avoid what Hyperion has coming to them. We can kick the Bloodshots out of the city. If we can get it up in the air again…”

“Lot of talk coming from a man who can barely move his fingers,” Lilith scoffed, though she really didn’t look too much better. Still, she must have been conscious longer than Roland was. She stared down at him from her bunk, wordlessly.

But Roland knew what she was thinking, what they were both thinking.

_“I left you for dead. All to protect some stupid Key.”_ Roland wanted to say.

_“I made a mistake. I should have stayed by your side. I should have protected you and protected the city.”_ He wanted to tell her.

_“I’m glad you’re alive. I’m so glad Wilhelm didn’t finish you off. I don’t care what you needed to tell me. I’m glad you’re here.”_

But Roland didn’t say a word.

And neither did the Siren.

“It will take time, but Sanctuary would be worth it,” Roland finally added, after a long silence between the three. “We need some place to set up shop. Roaming around hunting Vaults and following orders won’t work right now. In time, we’ll get Tannis and the Vault Key back and find Brick and the others. If they don’t escape before then.”

“ _In time?”_ Lilith scoffed again, this time nearly gasping for breath in the pain it took to raise her voice. Roland could tell she wanted to move, wanted to stand up and slap him and hell, Roland knew he probably deserved it. “Those are our _friends_.”

“And this is a war.” Roland responded, his voice for the first time returning to its normal strength. “Jack’s declared war. Mordecai, is Pierce still alive?”

Mordecai nodded. “Helena? Yeah. She’s been tending to wounds the best she can. Patched you and Lily up better than you’d imagine. She had to…” he trailed off, as though skimming over something important. “We’ve all be trying to round out as many bodies as we can from the remains. I’m damn lucky we found you guys.”

“Good. I’m glad she’s okay. Her leadership will be necessary in starting a resistance,” Roland said, trying to skim over some important things himself.

“A _resistance_?” Lilith raised an eyebrow, bringing her arm over her stomach and gritting her teeth in the pain. “Look, not that I don’t think this is important, but can’t we just take a few days to recover before we jump the gun and get ourselves almost killed again? Or _actually_ killed this time?”

Roland stopped, looking at her, _really_ looking at her this time. There was something in her eyes. Pain, regret, _something_ that she wasn’t wearing directly on her sleeve.

“ _Got something to tell ya when this is all over.”_

Roland paused for a moment, glancing between her and Mordecai reluctantly. He coughed before finally turning to Lilith. “I’m sorry, Lilith. I can get ahead of myself. Was there something you needed to…?”

“No,” Lilith said quickly, more falling back down on the cot than actually laying there. “It’s nothing. There was never anything, after all.”

And somewhere, on some level, Roland knew he missed something. He knew he was denying something and refusing to see what was there. And on another level, he knew that he would continue to ignore it and deny it. Even in the future, when Zed would shake his head sadly at Lilith, when he would see the old, forgotten ultrasounds on Tannis’s desk, he would simply stiffen his shoulders and move on. And he knew there was a cost to ignoring it.

But on another level, he knew that they had to soldier on. That in the end, maybe there was no chance for them at all. “I’m sorry Lilith,” Roland said once again, with the same flat intonation from before, simply because he didn’t know what else to say.

“I know you are,” she replied, with just a bit of venom. “The good news is, this much blood? Hyperion will never believe I lived through the attack. I could leave forever. Go undercover. Fight from the backlines.”

Roland only nodded, as much as his neck would allow him to nod. “Right. Could prove to be an advantage.” And they both knew, deep down, that this was a little more than a plan. That this was a severance, a chasm opening up and that Lilith leaving to fake her death would only serve to open it more. Neither spoke a word of it.

Roland simply rolled over and closed his eyes, trying to make it all go away, trying to wash away her face and the ringing in his ears and the sight of her blood on the bed sheets and the bandages around her body. And he knew, right there, that there was no chance for them at all.  


End file.
